My problem with authority is that they all watch the same movies we do. Far (far) too many arrogant pricks get involved in law enforcement so they can be The Big Man and throw their weight around.
I don’t pull this punch at all when I say I think these types should be weeded out and kept as far away from positions of authority as possible. Stamp licker, maybe, but only for junk mail. They do far more harm than good, giving law enforcement (and government, and management, and parking attendants…) a very bad reputation, sowing the seeds of resentment, resistance and rebellion.
Bullies, to put it plainly, can suck my ass.
Consider this situation. It’s bad enough the US has issued a blanket carte blanche for agencies of all branches of authority to wade through your private life, usurping every freedom you ever had the illusion you had, all in the name of the Freedom they claim to be protecting. It’s hilarious and though my heart goes out to innocent American civilians I laugh and laugh because the vocal arch-conservative minority is getting everything it wants, leaving average shmoe to bleed on the sidewalk relieved of his belief that it would never happen to him.
Bad enough. But add to that this arrogant Big Man simplex and you are asking for repercussions. There’s just too much media exposure for bullies to get away with it.
Then again I don’t think anyone would have predicted the return of the McCarthy era. Maybe Americans will just keep believing their Animal Farm, straight from the pages of 1984.
This trend toward paranoid conservatism is not just in the US. It’s pretty much global. What’s strange about the timing of this is that whereas conservative trends mirror economic slumps we are told we are experiencing a flush economy right now. Crime is down, employment is up, miniskirts are mini. So why the rampant recoil from all that is colourful and fun? What are we retreating from?